Method of drying wheat gluten



Patented Sept. 9, 1947 METHOD OF DRYING WHEAT GLUTEN Charles V. Hagedon,Harbor Beach, Mich, as-

signor to Huron Milling Company, Inc., Harbor Beach, Mich, a corporationof Michigan No Drawing. Application October 20, 1943, Serial No. 507,037

(Cl. ISL-47.5)

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to the drying of wheat gluten, and has forits object the drying of such material more economically than hasheretofore been possible.

Another object of the invention is to eliminate certain characteristicsof such material and thereby permit the drying to be accomplished ineconomically operated driers not heretofore usable for the purpose.

Other objects will readily occur to those skilled in the art uponreference to the following description.

The industrial separation of starch and gluten from wheat or flour iswell known, but the drying of the recovered gluten has been found to bediflicult and costly because of its gummy, elastic and adhesivecharacter. 2

The procedure commonly followed isto dry this material in vacuum ovensor in trays, while passing over them a current of relatively dry air, orby passing the mass over and between steam heated rollers from which thedried sheet must be scraped. I

Such processes are expensive and not continuous, but have heretoforebeen used because the adhesive property of the gluten would not permitthe satisfactory use of continuous driers.

In the present process, the wet gluten mass, having normally a moisturecontent of 60% to 75% is first heated to a temperature of 190 F. or overthe mass being agitated and heated for a sufficient time to insure thatall of it reaches the required temperature. Little or no incidentaldrying will occur during such treatment.

The effect of such heating is to change the gluten to the extent ofsubstantially eliminating its gummy elastic character and at the sametime its adhesive properties. The mass, however, remains sufficientlyplastic to enable it to be formed into granules or pellets or irregularshreds, which being non-adhesive, may be dried by agitation in a countercurrent of hot air in the ordinary forms of progressive and continuousdriers, such as the rotary inclined tube of drum type in which thematerial is tumbled in a counter current of hot dry air, or theconveyortunnel type of drier, or the shelf type in which 2 the materialfalls from one shelf to another through an ascending current of hot dryair.

The formation of the granules, pellets or shreds may be accomplished byextrusion, shredding or in any suitable manner.

Now having described the invention and the preferred embodiment, it isto be'understood that said invention is to be limited, not to thespecific details herein set forth, but only by the scope of the claimswhich follow:

I claim:

1. The process of drying wheat gluten which includes the steps of firstdestroying the adhesive property of said gluten by a preliminaryheating, then forming the material into granules, then passing thelatter in counterfiow with hot dry air while agitating the granularmaterial.

2. The process of drying wheat gluten which includes the steps of firstdestroying the adhesive property of said gluten by heating the wet massto at least F., then forming the material into granules, then passingthe latter in counterfiow with hot dry air while agitating the granularmaterial.

3. The process of drying wheat gluten which includes the steps of firstdestroying the adhesive property of said gluten by heating the wet massto at least 190 F., then forming the material into granules, thenpassing the latter in counterfiow with hot dry air.

CHARLES V. I-IAGEDON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,239,766 Brownell Sept. 11, 1917767,727 Allen Aug. 16, 1904 2,007,962 Burruss Jr. et a1, July 16, 19352,233,213 Kniseley et a1 Feb. 25, 1941 2,068,181 Hurxthal Jan. 19, 19372,327,943 Tiers Aug. 24, 1943 1,240,816 Brownell Sept. 25, 1917

